VSN Presents: VHLM Award Race

[LucyXpher 1,653]

Graphic by @LucyXpher

So I've been thinking-- yes, I'm prone to do that from time to time-- why was it so bothersome to many in the VHL community that the Trade Deadline was such a dud? So we had no trades, big deal, the league rolls on and everyone lies in the beds they made, why the outrage?  Well, dear reader, it's because we all love controversy.  As a human species, drama is the spice of life and things get a little dull when it's in short supply.  We all have opinions and when we're unceremoniously robbed of the opportunity to form new ones about trades, we satiate ourselves on the outrage of status quo!  Well, fear not, there is controversy to come... maybe.  Oh sure, there will undoubtedly be controversy somewhere down the line, but perhaps we can manufacture some spice a little nearer in the future.  

 

Inspired by a conversation this morning with @SMYLS4, I began to wonder how the VHLM awards will be decided this season.  Oh, you're here for VHL content only? You don't care about the M?  Well, that's your loss, but read on if you-- like many-- are starving for spice. (I feel like there's a Dune reference to be made here somewhere...)  

 

 

Teamwork Kills Award Season Dreams

 

As it stands at this current moment, the Halifax 21st have three players leading all players in points-- good for them!  Here's the problem: If the season were to end today, Ty Duke @TheDuke would claim the Ethan Osborne Trophy for the most points with 88, Pelayo Bolivar @SMYLS4 would capture the Alexander Chershenko Trophy for being the league's top goal scorer with 44, and Inker Belle @WildfireMicro would take home the Vladimir Boomchenko Trophy as the league's assist leader.  Oh, you don't see the problem?  Okay, let me break it down for you.  While it's certainly a beautiful story that could emerge about three teammates taking the league by storm and capturing their own piece of hardware in the process, who takes home the Mitch Higgins Trophy as the league's MVP?

 

 

As you can see, the league's list of top point-getters is a who's-who of Halifax and Miami with very little separating the top three to make their case for MVP.  Maybe it's redundant to say, but the league's MVP should ideally be awarded to the player who is MOST valuable to their team.  Yes, the player (i.e. one player), who is most valuable (distinguished from their teammates in some meaningful way).  Are you catching on yet?  Who of the league's top scorers really has a solid claim for league MVP-- especially when the point gap between 1st and 2nd is only 1 point?  Adding to this, it seems quite clear that the Halifax trio has had the benefit of playing with one another to bolster their stats-- Bolivar and Belle have been basically inseparable on the team's 2nd line since the start of the season, and Duke has been holding down first line duties, however I'm sure they all see powerplay time together.  Who of these three has the best claim for MVP?  It's a question I don't have the answer to, and I suspect might become a talking point for the voters of the award.  

 

And if not one of the Halifax trio, do you slide down the list by 10+ points and consider Jacob Longstreet @Dynamicmlb_42 (79 points) or Armas Jortika @Kavadar (72 points) of Miami?  Or maybe you even like Cash Carti @v.2  who is the lone Houston representative on the points leaderboard, leading their team in scoring by 9 points.  You could very well make a case for Jortikka as the league's top scoring defenseman by a 21 point margin at this point, but the fact that he's outscored by a teammate in Longstreet and is 5th in league scoring seems to dim his glow just a little bit.  Okay, so what about goalies?  Considering a goalie won the Higgins last season, perhaps it could happen again this season?

 

 

Tending in Tandem or Solo Savior

 

At the time of writing this, Miami's Draw Mac @okochastar leads the VHLM with 40 wins in 61 games, followed closely by San Diego's own Ricky LaFleur @DarkSpyro with 39.  In the SV% category, however, a category regarded by many to be the most important of our limited goaltending metrics, Vladimir Trunov @qripll and Dr Victor von Doom @Garsh of Ottawa lead the way with a .927 and .926 in 34 and 27 games respectively.  After that, it's Pepe Silvia @STZ of Mexico with a .920, and Ricky Lafleur ranks 4th with a .919 SV% on the Marlins.  In the GAA category, LaFleur leads by a signficant margin with a 1.57 rating, while Draw Mac ranks 6th among all goalies with a competitive 1.76, and von Doom and Trunov rank 8th and 10th with 1.85 and 1.98 respectively.  Finally, in the shutout category, it's Ricky LaFleur once again out in front with 15 shutouts, followed by Mac with 11.  Silvia has the 4th most with 6, and Trunov comes in with the 5th most shutouts, tied with Lorequavius and Powers at 5.  Is there any particular goalie that stands out enough to be in consideration for the Mitch Higgins Trophy as league MVP?  

I'm of the opinion that there is not-- at least not compared with standouts from previous seasons.  In fact, I'm fairly convinced that the Benoit Devereux Trophy for the league's best goaltender could be a point of contention.  Yay, more spice!  

 

 

While Ricky LaFleur leads both the GAA and SO categories, he ranks 4th in SV%.  There are those who believe that a top goalie should have to play the lion's share of games, and that playing in a tandem should essentially disqualify you from contention.  While I tend to agree in most cases, there are times when the tandem needs to be respected (see Ullmark and Swayman in 2023-24 when Ullmark took home the Vezina with 49 games played).  It's my opinion that in S97, both Trunov and von Doom should be in the conversation, with the caveat, however, that they share the honors if they are selected.  Let me say more.

 

I'm not generally a fan of shared awards and I'd typically prefer to see a bona-fide starter win the Devereux, but in the context of the VHLM where player development and engagement is paramount (even for VHL veterans like Trunov and von Doom) exceptions can be made. It's not as though there isn't precedent for shared awards either.  For the goaltenders, I believe what it boils down to is separating the goaltender's performance from the team environment around them.  In the case of LaFleur, while his GAA and SO numbers are tops in the league, he has benefitted greatly from being on the VHLM's top defensive team in San Diego.  The Marlins currently have the lowest goals against in the M with only 100 allowed, and have allowed the 2nd fewest shots against (1201), with only Houston being marginally more stingy in that respect (1195).  LaFleur has had help in the GAA and SO department, and yet he clearly has some claim to those honors as well.  His less shiny SV% at .919 is, at least in part, a symptom of his team's low shots against totals.  For example, allowing 1 goal on 10 shots is only a .900 SV%-- well below elite, and yet still a great result for the team.  

 

The knock against LaFleur is that over the course of a season, a goalie's SV% will equalize to their ability.  The team-defense-causing-low-save-percentage argument doesn't really hold up for me when the SV% is calculated over 1200+ shots.  At a certain point, the goalie has to kind of own that number, imperfect though the stat may be.

 

If it hasn't become clear, my frontrunners for the Devereux Trophy are Lafleur or the tandem of Trunov and von Doom.  In the case of Ottawa's goalies, a similar argument might be made for inflated statistics due to team defense, this time benefitting the SV% category.  With Ottawa allowing the 4th most shots against (1589), their goaltenders have seen their fair share of simulated vulcanized rubber.  The two rank 9th and 10th in the M for total shots against.  I would normally take issue with tandem goaltenders being nominated for awards when one goalie clearly receives the sheltered starts while the other has to face the top teams.  This can lead to all kinds of funky stats, though this doesn't seem to be the case with Ottawa.  Both Trunov and von Doom have played nearly half of the team's games and have nearly identical statistics.  The real selling point for them is their league leading SV%, 6+ percentage points above the next highest goalie in the league.  To do this on an Ottawa team that probably could afford to help their goalies out a bit more is impressive.  Sure, they receive more shots against per game than a goalie like LaFleur-- but SV% isn't calculated by game, it's determined by total shots and goals against, so over the course of the season, numbers should equalize to a goalie's performance.  

 

It's because their numbers are so close that I would make the case that the tandem deserves some love this season-- but again, I personally couldn't pick one over the other, they'd have to share the hardware.  They can't much help their GAA being lower than LaFleur when the team around them defensively is not on the same level as San Diego, and shutouts will certainly be harder to come by in that environment. A goaltending performance like Lovstrom's @Pifferfish in the VHL this season proves that a good goalie can lead all statistical categories on a good team, so what's LaFleur's excuse?

 

Of course, this is all meant to be taken with a grain of salt as I have no say in deciding the VHLM awards this season.  For the record, I'm a big fan of Ricky LaFleur and if he won an award or two I'd be very happy for him!

 

 

Ask VSN

 

I certainly have my opinions and while I'm happy to share them, the VSN boasts a team of Dougs-- um, yeah, everybody at VSN is a Doug now-- each one with their own expert opinion and reasoning.  In the interest of measuring the spice levels of the Higgins and Devereux races, I assembled the Council of Dougs (the writers, podcasters, and graphics contributors of the VSN-- soon to be DSN) to make their early picks for the award winners.

 

As if to illustrate my point above about the contentiousness of the Higgens race, our council put forward a rather extensive list of potential nominees, though not all received votes.  

Pelayo Bolivar @SMYLS4 - 6 Votes
Ty Duke @TheDuke - 2 Votes
Inker Belle @WildfireMicro - 0 Votes
Jacob Longstreet @Dynamicmlb_42 - 0 Votes
Armas Jortikka @Kavadar - 0 Votes

Cash Carti @v.2  - 2 Votes

Joel Jakobs @Plate - 0 Votes

 

As you can see, Bolivar was the most favorable nominee with 6 total votes, followed by Cash Carti and Ty Duke, both with 2 votes each.  Curious to me was the reasoning for Bolivar over his teammates, Duke and Belle, especially considering Duke currently holds the slight edge in the points category.  

 

Doug @dstevensonjr had this to say: "Feels like they're driving the league's best offense by a country mile. I value goals more than assists, and they're tops in goals and shots by a fair margin. Also leading the league in game winning goals. Halifax with a 7 point lead in the standings should [have their best player as] the leagues best."

 

DOUGicer13 @Ricer13 felt differently: "Cash Carti is an excellent option. Houston leading their division. Carti leading the way for them statistically... Joel Jakobs has 24 more points than anyone on his team. Definitely should be added to the poll."

 

Another anonymous Doug expressed some interest in Jortikka as MVP, but ultimately decided for Bolivar instead.

Finally, Quiet Doug @Pifferfish decided to weigh in and saw Ty Duke, Pelayo Bolivar, and Jacob Longatreet as the best candidates: "My vote goes to Ty Duke because his offensive production was almost identical to Pelayo, but he does 3 things better than Pelayo that I think are key. First, he takes faceoffs, and wins them at a 57% clip. Second, he gets the majority of his points at 5v5 (only 14 on the PP), Pelayo had 27 on the PP. His plus minus points to the better defensive forward being Duke as well, he has slightly more shot blocks on the season. Third, he takes half as many penalties as Pelayo."

 

Certainly, there were some mixed opinions among the Council of Dougs, making this Higgins race an intriguing one indeed.  Of course, we'll have to wait and see which way the official voters go this offseason.  In the Devereux race, there also some divided opinions, but once again a clear favorite.

 

Ricky Lafleur @DarkSpyro - 6 Votes

Onyekachukwu Chidieber Oluwaseun @TenIQ - 0 Votes
Draw Mac @okochastar - 0 Votes

Toby Bob @Baby Boomer - 2 Votes

Vladimir Trunov @qripll and Dr Victor von Doom @Garsh - 2 Votes

 

SMYLS4Doug @SMYLS4 was first to comment: "How can i say this as nicely as possible. Although I do think the OTT Tandem is probably the best option. The award is for the best goaltender not the best goaltending. Therefore i think its unfair for them to win it and i also hate shared awards unless they are truly equal in every single stat."

 

Doug @dstevensonjr himself would also share: "Ricky LaFleur - 1st in shut outs, 2nd in wins, 4th in save percentage, 1st in goals against average. Team is not carried by scoring to inflate win totals."

 

DOUGicer13 @Ricer13 chimed in: "Wow all of the goalies are performing so well."

 

Anonymous Doug would contribute as well: "LaFleur is my clear Devereux winner as of now. SDM and LVA face about the same shots per game as well which kills any OCO argument."

 

Quiet Doug @Pifferfish, the player agent for Jorgen Lovstrom, had this to say: "Yo, the M is bullsh*t.  What is this GAA ranking? 10 guys sub 2? WTF is that? Garbage..." (someone was salty)

 

Finally, doug_five_ @ace_five_ would offer this: "Toby Bob is doing really well considering the team they're on."

 

While there is some early concensus among our contributors as to who the top goaltender is, once again it will be very interesting to see which way the official voters go when the time comes!  With 11-12 games remaining on every team's schedule, there is still much that could be determined over the next week.  Time will tell if a true MVP candidate emerges, or if a particular goaltender will distinguish themself from their peers.  Perhaps this will all just be blown smoke by the time awards season rolls around, or maybe it's about to get extra spicy-- keep your eyes peeled for wormsign! (there's the Dune reference)

 

 

Editors Notes: 

 

• My VSN contributions lately have been primarily focussed on editing, posting, and creating graphics, so it's nice to write a bit for a change of pace.  
• If anyone has interest or skills in graphic creation, the VSN team could always use more hands!  Please let me know if you're interested and I'd be happy to get you set up.  The TPE is good and you too could become a member of the Council of Dougs!
• Don't agree with the opinions expressed above?  Good, let's talk about that! 
• These are not official votes for awards, just the opinions of the VSN team-- well, not just the opinions, I mean, our team is pretty great and super smart, but you get it...

Edited Tuesday at 01:46 AM by LucyXpher

[DarkSpyro 988]

[DarkSpyro 988]

Excellent read!! Great work once again @LucyXpher!!

[Ricer13 2,846]

This was fun! I enjoyed this. 

[LucyXpher 1,653]

19 minutes ago, DarkSpyro said:

Excellent read!! Great work once again @LucyXpher!!

Thank you!  I hope Ricky has a strong finish to the season, leave no doubt! 

[Grape 769]

The blessing and curse of the tandem I suppose. If I had one or the other, they are likely much more in the conversation. While it'd be nice to give one the lion's share of starts, it's simply unfair to the other, both being legit starter caliber guys, and both being individuals I don't want to trade. The blessing comes in the playoffs, where we saw last season different goalies outperform different teams, and gives an interesting option going into each match-up. 

[LucyXpher 1,653]

4 minutes ago, Grape said:

The blessing and curse of the tandem I suppose. If I had one or the other, they are likely much more in the conversation. While it'd be nice to give one the lion's share of starts, it's simply unfair to the other, both being legit starter caliber guys, and both being individuals I don't want to trade. The blessing comes in the playoffs, where we saw last season different goalies outperform different teams, and gives an interesting option going into each match-up. 

Which is partly why I think they should be in the conversation!  

Edited Tuesday at 03:16 AM by LucyXpher

[Rkhockey9 21]

That was a fun read! Very well put together! Great work @LucyXpher

[Dynamicmlb_42 25]

As always @LucyXpher a great read. Didn't hurt seeing Longstreets name in lights either lol